WOODLAWN, Tenn. — Dennis Dolan has known Patricia and Ronald "Tony" Kennedy for decades. Not only did they sign his paycheck — they gave him a place to live on their farm in Woodlawn.

So, as news spread over the weekend that the couple was part of a "murder-suicide," he couldn't believe it.

"Them's good people, both of them is," Dolan said Monday, three days after Ronald Anthony Kennedy, 57, called an employee Friday evening and said he had killed his wife at their Stewart County lake house and planned to kill himself.

While Stewart County deputies were sent to the lake house, Montgomery County deputies raced to the couple's home on St. Paul Road.

They found Ronald "Tony" Kennedy dead near the farm, apparently by his own hand, said Montgomery County Sheriff's Office Sandra Brandon.